How Good Is Your Business Plan?

Without having a solid business plan, either as a start-up or as an established business, you cannot:

Run a successful business
Secure any/additional investment

Your business plan needs to present, in simple and very clear terms, your desirability, viability and feasibility as a business.

What does this mean? It means that you need to demonstrate how much your customers desire your product or service; how financially sound (profitable and performing) you are in order to survive as a business; and how easy it is for you to continue the operations of your business (that is your activities) while ensuring costs are controlled and easily recoverable.

The stronger, data-driven, verifiable, and clearer your business plan is, the more likely it is that it will appeal to potential investors. Remember that a business plan is not a public relations exercise, nor a ‘let us see if we can make them believe the story’ pitch – it is factual and pragmatic: it is not a soap opera, nor a theatre script.

Securing investment in your start-up should be about more than just money, paying bills or allowing you to expand your production line or service offering. Many start-ups fail to take advantage of what investors do and know best, such as:

Becoming involved in your Board activities (advising and recommending not just on best business practices but, also, on governance issues which may often be left unaddressed in fast scaling businesses)
Helping you recruit the best management team (an outsider views your core team’s skills and capabilities gaps much faster than an insider would, so their guidance in selecting the most suitable executives for what your business needs right now is key)
Supporting you to raise additional capital (they can introduce you to other investors or their ‘brand’ name alone may attract others in)
Offering you access to an extended business network (investors, of any kind, have very powerful networks and a multitude of investment ecosystems which you can easily tap into)
Providing you with advice to develop your business strategy (they will help you expand and grow because their return on investment will grow, too)

However, there is one very important – almost superseding advantage that investors offer your business: credibility. And that credibility, irrespective of how much money investors may put into your business, is priceless: it is, if you wish, similar to ‘success breeds success’ and in line with the business psychology principle according to which it is safer to invest in something someone else has already invested in, rather than being the first investor.

Circklo’s Business Configurator is solely dedicated to sustainable start-ups. We help you configure your start-up for both profit and purpose and, after 12 modules of intensive business coaching, mentoring, dry-pitching, and networking with industry experts, angel investors, venture capitalists and other start-ups in the community, you will see the enormous difference we make to your business: we optimise your business to be investment-ready.

Join our Business Configurator to scale-up your product, and be confident about what it can deliver to your customer base. Apply now